When US Senate leader Chuck Schumer made his speech, which became known under the title: The World has changed, I paid him no mind at all.
Schumer, who has presented himself as a guardian of Israel (the meaning of his Jewish name shomer-guardian) and who undermined Barak Obama’s efforts (2008-20016) to seek justice for Iran and Palestinians, is better known for acting out and showing off than for deep thinking.
I was wrong. His speech may go down in history as his greatest attempt to tackle the world, which has changed before his very eyes and to suggest some well thought out ideas.
There is a lesson for all of us as I shall show below. It is a lesson about the social media as the provocateur of world conscience. I have, for the last two years, pleaded for a greater appreciation and study of social media.
Many of the under-the-table activities politicians engaged in, were carefully managed and hidden from the public.
For instance, former US president JF Kennedy’s affair with Marylyn Manroe was managed by the press corps to the level where it never became a public scandal.
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Schumer was forced to come to terms with the reality of Palestinian suffering.
The reality was that Israel’s imperial vision, which involved the murder and slaughter and starvation of 2,3 million Palestinians, paid for by US money and weapons was being played on social media in real time as the atrocities were occurring.
Schumer confessed that no person with any human feeling could watch the episodes and remain unmoved.
That is what has changed, you sluggard.
In the pre-social media days, the leaders of the 57 Muslim countries that met in Egypt to discuss the issue could be bribed and managed and nobody would ever know.
Today’s social media world is making the bought-and-paid-for state newspapers irrelevant.
Kids know they are biased.
“The world has changed radically… and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a government vision that is stuck in the past.” He acknowledged that Palestinians face discrimination. (They) “face unique obstacles compared to their Israeli counterparts.”
US policy makers have concluded that they can no longer carry the water for Israel. Schumer acknowledges and admits that his views have gone through a transformation.
I repeat, Schumer was forced to face reality.
Schumer acknowledges the killing of innocent Arabs. Without social media, the world would never have known the brutality of Israeli occupation, doctors shot in Al Shifa hospital while attending to premature babies.
Stupidities still occur.
We now leave Schumer and transfer our cognitive abilities to two black politicians, who are living in the old world.
The question today, for any politician, should be: “What will happen if this action comes out on social media?” And we can add another. “Who is your employer?”
New York mayor Brother Eric Adams is a former police chief and boasts of being street wise. Nevertheless, in his six months in office, he already appears to be no less than a moron.
When President Joe Biden came to power, he dismantled previous anti-immigration policies of his predecessor Donald Trump. He opened the border with Mexico. Republicans say that as many as 15 million illegal migrants have crossed the border into the US in three years.
Adams found himself with 15 000 such migrants. In typical democratic style, he renovated two warehouses, and commandeered Roosevelt Hotel. Being a sensitive guy, he allowed a prepaid credit card per family of four, of US$1 400 per month so that if they wished they could savour culturally tasty Hispanic cuisine.
The amount earmarked for this was US$53 million.
Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson says that he is the coolest cat West of the Mississippi. Not wishing to be outdone in sensitivity and cultural diversity, Woodlawn and Wadsworth elementary schools were renovated and ready for use by migrants.
Chicago resident James Poole said that: “We have teenagers, young women that need places to stay with their kids. They are sleeping in hospitals, (on the metro) and in police stations.”
As of October 13, 2023, U$D9 000 per family for rental assistance was provided to illegal migrants. Migrants are encouraged to furnish “kitchenettes” while they await their papers. The sum set aside is US$42 million for half a year. At the time of going to press, 15 000 migrants had taken advantage of the city’s generosity.
The question arises as to whether politicians are more in tune with the needs of foreigners than they are with the needs of their own people. Surely, if money is available, native homeless people in New York or in Chicago could have benefited from the renovations.
Now, there is a complication. The US, which is dominating other players in the field, was itself a lapdog for Israel and the Jewish lobby in the US. For Israel’s sake, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the instigator, the US had fought wars in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon and in Afghanistan, the so-called never-ending wars.
The cost in limbs and material, for the natives in those countries and for the US, was enormous.
Without social media, only experts would have been appraised of the costs born by the US in those wars abroad.
Stven Spielberg, a Jewish leading film maker, speaking at the 30th anniversary of the Shoah Foundation which he founded in 1993, moaned the resurgence of anti-Semitism.
“I am increasingly alarmed that we may be condemned to repeat history — to have once again to fight for the very right to be Jewish.
“The rise of extremist views…the conspiracy to demonise those who are different…the dehumanisation of any group based on their differences, is the foundation of fascism.
“We can rage against the heinous acts committed by the terrorists on October 7 and decry the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza.
“I never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime.”
He too, without social media relations, would never have undergone a sense of shared suffering with Palestinians.
Now you know.
- Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot. He writes from the US.